23 August 2023, Novi Sad, 65.82km
Apartment Minimal 2346RSD [R404]

Crossing into Kosovo is more complex than anticipated so tomorrow we will try to board a bus to anywhere at all within its borders!
I had planned for us to cycle to Novi Sad (done today), then take a train or bus or combination to Raška, north of the northernmost Kosovo border post, then cycle across the border getting stamped out of Serbia and into Kosovo.
When I began to plot a cycle route to ensure we could do the distance from Raška within the constraints of our Schengen visa, I could not get Google maps to simply follow the road into Kosovo no matter what stratagems I employed; it preferred always a longer route via Montenegro!
My subsequent research revealed that because Serbia does not recognise Kosovo, it will not stamp you out of Serbia, that some border posts are closed due to recent tensions, that entering Serbia from Kosovo if you first entered Kosovo from another country can be problematic.
There is access via Serbia, we just don't know now exactly where and we are running out of time. So, public transport here we come (we hope)... If it can cross, we can cross...
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ChatGPT: "In medieval times, Kosovo was part of the Serbian and Byzantine empires. In the late 20th century, it became a part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under Tito. In the late 1990s, Kosovo experienced a conflict between ethnic Albanians seeking independence and Yugoslav forces. NATO intervened, leading to a UN administration and eventual declaration of independence by Kosovo in 2008. However, this independence is not universally recognised."
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Thirty-seven degrees (37°) today. And humid. Making our almost-70km distance tiring despite the flat terrain. In addition, route 102, which we rode for most of the day, was narrow, rough around the edges, and far too busy. We can now confirm that Serbian drivers are much less risk-averse than other Europeans. Large trucks will barrel past us much too close for comfort, and some drivers feel no shame zooming over pedestrian crossings at speed without checking for those on foot or bike.
In some towns there were bike paths, some better than others. Charl had a puncture and a slow leak, one outside a garage, one outside a bike shop from which we bought new tubes. While at the garage, we tried another new ice-cream by KING, this one called Seduction (almond-studded chocolate over strawberry cream) with an expiry time and date: 11h50, 11 June 2025.
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Again there are no camping options in town, but we found a tiny apartment in someone's backyard within budget and within walking distance of the Surabaya Indonesian restaurant. Charl began with "Soup with several tasty ingeredients" (sic) and we shared "Dong An chicken - Eastern Peace - leek, ginger, peanuts and hot pepper".
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Something I have not mentioned. Quite a lot of Europeans commute by bicycle, whether to and from work or to take their kids to the park or to do the shopping. Many bike users are elderly, some ancient. Many are whizzed about on (increasingly appealing to us) e-bikes, many not.
Today there was a bent old woman in the queue ahead of us at a small shop. She paid for her shopping, but took so long to put away her money and pack away her goodies, that the teller helped us virtually over her head. We were still topping up a flask with cold water when she followed us out onto the pavement and packed her goodies in a basket on the back of her old sit-up-and-beg bike. We could not spare the time to watch her mount and ride away, but were truly impressed by her tenacity.